This is Trevor Young's original PR Warrior blog. The latest version can be found at www.prwarrior.com

July 17, 2009

10 Reasons Why PR People Need to be on Twitter

As Twitter continues to grow in stature and credibility, it's important that public relations practitioners (as well as other professionals in marketing and corporate communication fields) develop a deeper understanding as to what all the fuss is about.

If you need reasons why you should be involved on Twitter, here they are - two bunches of fives, right between the eyes!

1.Twitter is an influential medium

Public relations is much to do with influencing people. If there is a medium out there that engages people en masse, then PR has to be in there, understanding it, getting involved. Twitter has quickly gained a reputation as a medium that influences other mediums e.g. traditional media. From a PR perspective, it's critical practitioners immerse themselves in the medium, if nothing else, to be able to discuss its influence with clients (if agency) or internal stakeholders (in-house).

2.Meet clever people

Public relations is a 'people business'. You can never meet enough clever people, and from my experience, a disproportionate number of smart/clever/intelligent people hang out on Twitter. Get involved, listen to, converse with and, importantly, learn from an incredibly diverse range of people; your brain will be all the better for it (and so too your PR smarts). Or do what Ross Hill suggests - pick your own editorial team.

3.Build your network

In the PR business, you can never have enough contacts. Networking is part of the game, and Twitter is 'networking on steroids' - it allows you to quickly grow your networks locally, Australia-wide and internationally. As Iggy Pintado is fond of saying: "Every connection is a potential business opportunity". Boost your contact book and in doing so, increase your sources of information plus potential new business leads, referrals, and job opportunities.

4.Keep up with trends

If a PR practitioner is not ahead of the curve, then they're behind - and that's the worst position anyone in this industry can find themselves in because that puts you on the path to irrelevancy. Twitter is inhabited by smart and curious people who are always seeking out new information, and when they find it, they're more than happy to share the love (as well as their views and opinions). Twitter acts as a great launching pad for further information from all number of sources on the web; there are always links to fresh and credible information on any topic you could imagine, especially politics, social issues, media, technology and pop culture.

5. Pitch journalists

More and more journalists are signing on and getting involved with Twitter. They might receive 100 emails daily - many of which they might not even get to - but are probably not bothered too much on Twitter at this point. The challenging thing to get your head around is you've got just 140 characters to pitch (or more, if you pitch via successive tweets) - not a lot, so you need to be pretty succinct. Oh, and if you're not friendly with the journo online or offline, ensure you ask permission before you pitch them privately (direct message) via Twitter - it's the courteous thing to do.

6. Pitch bloggers

Bloggers tend to be particularly active on Twitter. Logically, the two platforms go hand-in-hand as Twitter can be a great way to build traffic for your blog. Bloggers are increasingly becoming important influencers for PR people to tap into, and Twitter is the ideal avenue through which to (a) identify and familiarise yourself with influential bloggers, and (b) potentially build a relationship with them before pitching. Ditto podcasters.

7. Tactical execution

There may/will come a time when you are asked to leverage Twitter as one element of a broader communications campaign. Okay, so what do you do? If you have had exposure to the Twittersphere and are au fait with online etiquette, what works and what doesn't - then you have a better chance of making a success of it. Conversely, if you're not intimate with the inner workings of Twitter, you will struggle. As social media becomes more omnipresent (read: mainstream), companies, brands and organisations will want to leverage it as part of their communications. Don't you be the one who hasn't got a clue what to do, otherwise you'll lose your gig to someone who 'gets it'.

8..Get info...fast!

Public relations is a fast-moving, dynamic business. You need multiple sources of information at the ready, and you need them NOW! There's a saying along the lines of "good PR people know a little about a lot of things, and if they don't know something, they know where to go to get the right information". Twitter can help! Also, Twitter is particularly good for quick 'straw poll' research - want a range of opinions in a hurry? Get tweeting! (Obviously, the more followers you've got, in all likelihood the more responses you're going to receive, so build up your Twitter community today!).

9. Build your personal brand (and sphere of influence)

It's important for people in public relations (and the marketing communications field in general) to stand out, have an opinion and to build a base of professional credibility. In short, that's how you get on in this business. It doesn't matter whether you work in agency land or you're an in-house practitioner, the future belongs to those who are ahead of the pack. I once heard a savvy marketer comment: "In the future, if you don't exist online, you don't exist." We're certainly heading in that direction.

10.Have a laugh.

Hey, the PR game is hard enough...why wouldn't you want to spend some down-time shooting the breeze with a diverse bunch of people many of whom have canny/sharp/weird/finely-honed senses of humour. Forget comedians. They're generally not that funny. I'll tell you who is funny - there are some clever cats on Twitter who machine-gun 140-character missives and razor-sharp observations that (hopefully) will put a smile on your dial.

7 Comments

Trevor it's as though you've read my thoughts about Twitter. I have found Twitter to be an amazing value-add for my professional development which has also lead to some great personal connections. Most of the people whom I follow are intelligent, entertaining and ahead of the pack; the kinds of people to take advice from and be inspired by. It is a social network I feel is best understood by participating (like most things, doing is best) and exploring.

I have made and developed great journalist contacts via Twitter, been able to integrate Twitter into PR strategies, been the first (in the office) to learn of breaking news, built my personal brand and started the #prjournolove movement and had a laugh. And, of course, very happy to have connected with @trevoryoung.

Trev. You've nailed another one. Just like KimberlyL, I an now concerned that you are taking up a new profession as mind reader. The PR industry will be poorer for that change of career methinks. I don't have much more to add than KimberelyL, other than Point 7 is a perfect example of what we talked about this week on the Social Media and Online Marketing Masterclass blog with Rave Rule 4: Put Down Roots!!

All those sound persuasive, but I'm very much not convinced. My personal opinions:

"Twitter is an influential medium" - no, it's not. It reaches a very small niche (there may be millions of people on Twitter, but very few are active or interested in what you have to say). Unless you're trying to reach that niche, Twitter is a (fun) time-waster par excellence.

"Meet clever people" - only if you're prepared to put in a significant amount of time to find them (see my previous comment about whether this is worthwhile).

"Build your network" - hmmm. Not convinced that Twitter is a better networking vehicle than sites like LinkedIn or Plaxo, depending on whom you're trying to network with.

"Keep up with trends" - yes, absolutely. A great way of identifying issues and what people are saying.

"Pitch journalists". IMHO, pitching journalists would best be done by Direct Message. Trouble is, I'm a vendor, and most journalists won't follow me. Hence, I'd be reduced to @messages, and I thus might as well send a short well-considered e-mail.

"Tactical execution" - not yet. Wait a year and see whether Twitter is still in existence. If, somehow, it has found a viable business model which suits business people, then maybe you can use it as part of your execution.

"Get info fast" - yes, with reservations. If you want information about a real issue, yes - if you want information about something lower profile, probably you're going to get disparate and biassed readings - if any.

"Build a personal brand" - only if you consider your personal brand to be valuable to the very niche audiences you'll get on Twitter.

"Have a laugh" - yes, it's fun. But it can also be a massive hoover for time which would otherwise be productive.

Twitter. You either adore it or despise it. I've heard the arguments against it more times than I care to recount. But as the saying goes, you can't argue with success. If it works for me, it works. And it's fun. So I'm hoping it sticks around.

I'd argue that Twitter is an influential medium that punches above its weight...the media is forever referring to Twitter, and Twitter has also been responsible for breaking the news (i.e. Mumbai bomb attacks). The influence, while perhaps more profound with those who use it (many of whom are also bloggers with extended reach, it must be pointed out), the fact the media is all over it gives Twitter standing in the influence stakes.

In terms of "meeting clever people", I'm active on Twitter but I don't go out of my way to find 'clever people', it's just there seems to be a lot more of them on any given day, all sharing knowledge and insights than, say, at your local supermarket (not being disparaging to anyone in your local supermarket, but you don't often get the chance to chat with them, do you?).

Agree, I think LinkedIn is pretty good for networking, but it's often with people that you know; the difference with Twitter is that it puts you in connection with people you don't generally know, and for me, it has fast-tracked my networking no end. I've probably networked more on Twitter in six months than 2 or so years going to events etc. But, that's just me...it might be different for other people.

Pitching journos is an interesting one. I've done it successfully a couple of times but the jury is still out. While it's about being on top of trends for PR people, it's also about cut-through and if I can get through to someone who is snowed under with emails, I'm already ahead. I notice that some journos won't allow PR people to DM them; I agree that's frustrating - either it's PR's fault for harassment in sending irrelevant pitches (it has been known to happen) or the journo is a tool. Probably a bit of both I'm tipping :)

Pitching bloggers, yes, good to go direct and comment on their blogs etc, agree, but in my experience, Twitter has cemented the relationship way quicker. Once again, it's only my experience, others might have alternative views.

Re tactical execution, I agree we don't know what will happen with Twitter, but if it ain't Twitter, it will be something else. The rules of social media will still apply and if you're not 'in', then you're 'out'. As a PR professional, I'd rather be all over it from the outset and be ready for new technologies as they arise.

I've used Twitter to get info fast and it's been fantastic! Only the other day while writing a strategy, I needed some statistics. To find them could have taken me 2-3 hours or so - one shout-out and 15 mins later, I had what I needed. That's gold for someone like me. I've also just appointed a new accountant via a Twitter referral.

Twitter is but one slice of the personal brand-building pie but again from experience, it's fast-tracked things enormously, especially as it's integrated with my blog, website, podcast and LinkedIn. I find it's like the glue that holds a lot of these things together.

In terms of laughing, I agree, if you let it Twitter can - as you put it - hoover up your time! The key is to control it, not the other way around. I'm sure there are people - and I can be one of them - that get caught out in that regard!

Cheers Steve for your comments -- once again, these are my views based on experience, what works for me doesn't necessarily work for others. As you can tell though, I'm a pretty big Twitter fan :) Check back with me in a year's time!